Anthem endgame calendar

In addition to the first hand experience Gaming Nexus' own Sean has played as a Guest at an Anthem gameplay event and reported on here, EA and BioWare have gone on record and into detail on Anthem's endgame. In any looter/shooter, endgame is probably the most critical aspect of the experience. Even if you muddle through the narrative or grind up the level progression, a solid endgame that gives players a reason to come back can paper over most any early misstep. Conversely, even the most engaging story and smooth player experience can watch a title flounder into oblivion without that compelling force to draw you back in once the main campaign has run its course.

From a brass tax point of view, Anthem's future content is going to break down into Acts. After the February 22nd release, Act 01 will grab the mantle in the following month, March. That gives players a bit of time to settle in, level up to max level 30 where the very best gear starts to unlock, and progress their Javelins and start working on their optimal loadouts. Then Act 01 takes over, breaking itself in three parts - Update 01: The Evolving World, Update 02: Stronger Together, and Update 03: The Cataclysm.

Over the course of the Act and Updates Anthem players will have plenty of access to free roam and explore the world, but can also dive into specific activities like:

harder difficulty levels that can be unlocked to open up top tier loot drops

crafting from blueprints

daily, weekly, and monthly challenges

Contracts for more loot and blueprints and Legendary Contracts for legendary loot

Strongholds - the hardest fixed level challenges in the game

and Cataclysms - the deadliest game events that actually cause physical changes to the game world itself

Overall it seems to have a strong lineup on tap. But the devil is in the details and we will have to see how it gets executed. Is the content paced correctly on its release drip? Is the top loot desirable enough to keep chasing? Is it hard enough to obtain that a player keeps grinding for it yet does it release positive feedback loops to reward something consistently along that journey that frustration doesn't settle in? These are difficult problems and often new IPs take a long time to finally find that balance, like the Division or Destiny. Here's to hoping Anthem learned from its predecessors' mistakes.